[Jason Reiss]

Yes the -usb packet forwarders in 1.4.3 are patched.

[Jason Reiss]

The v1 protocol does not support jit queue feedback messages.
A queue was added, via patch, to the forwarder so subsequent downlinks would not bump the previously queued downlink until transmit was complete.

mLinux lora recipes
http://git.multitech.net/cgi-bin/cgit.cgi/meta-mlinux.git/tree/recipes-connectivity/lora?h=3

USB packet forwarder patches
http://git.multitech.net/cgi-bin/cgit.cgi/meta-mlinux.git/tree/recipes-connectivity/lora/lora-packet-forwarder-usb?h=3

USB packet forwarder queue patch
http://git.multitech.net/cgi-bin/cgit.cgi/meta-mlinux.git/tree/recipes-connectivity/lora/lora-packet-forwarder-usb/lora-packet-forwarder-add-queue.patch?h=3

[Jason Reiss]

Is this for a gateway forwarding packets to a remote central network server?
Or a gateway using the embedded network server?

For a remote central network server receiving packets from the gateway there is no limit as the nodes are not connected to the gateway. Any packet that is received will be forwarded. Gateways can be added to the system to increase capacity.

The limit in the network is a number of packets that can be received and transmitted by the gateway. Each 8-channel gateway listens up to 50 virtual channels when datarate and frequency are combined. On these 50 virtual channels up to 8 packets can be received simultaneously.

There is also a limitation in the number of bytes available in the receive buffer. So if max length packets are being received only 3 such packets would be received.

With the 868 conduit used in EU there is also a limitation of duty-cycle, but again this limits the number of packets not nodes.

Here are a couple links to papers and discussions about lorawan capacity.
https://blog.semtech.com/understanding-the-lorawan-capacity-whitepaper
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1607.08011.pdf

In the other case of an embedded network server on Conduit, up to 2000 end-device can be connected.

[Jason Reiss]

Yes the lora card is not in working order.
Perhaps a component was accidentally knocked off when installing the card?

You could carefully remove the card and look for damaged components.

[Jason Reiss]

Try these commands to reset the card and reload the fpga firmware.
If cdone does not change when creset is unset then there is an issue with the lora card.

# mts-io-sysfs store lora/creset 0

# mts-io-sysfs show lora/creset
# mts-io-sysfs show lora/cdone

# mts-io-sysfs store lora/creset 1

# mts-io-sysfs store lora/reset 0

# mts-io-sysfs show lora/reset

# mts-io-sysfs store lora/reset 1

[Jason Reiss]

The Cloud Key Store is not yet available to the public. We will provide more information when it is available.

[Jason Reiss]

The MTDOT box example compiles fine for me with mDot or Dot Box/EVB platforms.

The examples have not been updated to the latest release of libmDot or mbed-os so be sure to uncheck the update libraries box when importing.
This will leave the libraries at the correct levels.

[Jason Reiss]

Looks like the packet forwarder is not able to start.

Try to run the packet forwarder alone and provide the output.
# /etc/init.d/lora-network-server stop
# cd /var/run/lora/1/
# ./lora_pkt_fwd

Provide output of hardware info
# mts-io-sysfs show lora/*

[Jason Reiss]

Special hardware would be needed to setup point to point wifi.

[Jason Reiss]

Source is available on mbed.
Click the third link on the page Steve shared.

[Jason Reiss]

A “packet forwarder” in the LoRaWAN network is a software program that communicates with the radio hardware and forwards the received packets to a network server over the Internet. Likewise the network server will send downlink packets to the packet forwarder to be sent over the radio.

The backhaul between the Conduits will need to be faster than lora.
A point-to-point wifi network between the Conduits could be used with additional hardware. Wifi networks can be setup 3+ miles depending on the gateway placement and hardware selected.

Connecting the two gateways over cellular will have latency issues. Also normally servers are not allowed to receive connections over cellular.

Two of the issues with using LoRa as the backhaul are bandwidth, the Conduit can receive on 8 channels and only send on one, and half-duplex transmissions, the gateway cannot receive while it is transmitting.

[Jason Reiss]

Hi Sean,

I have added this request to our backlog.

[Jason Reiss]

No there is not.
mDot peer to peer uses the LoRaWAN format for identification and authentication with DevAddr and Session Keys.

[Jason Reiss]

The xDot peer to peer uses a sync word of 0x56

Can this be set on the RN2903?

[Jason Reiss]

The EU xDot hardware is compatible for use with IN865 channel plan.

The xDot 915 vs 868 only differ in the tuning capacitors for the chip antenna on the development board. The RF paths on the module itself are identical.

We recently found the Rx2 window was incorrect in the IN865 channel plan.
The dev libraries have the correct frequency now.
https://github.com/MultiTechSystems/libxDot-dev-mbed5/blob/master/plans/ChannelPlan_IN865.cpp

[Jason Reiss]

Sending this json with a binary header to the down port of the packet forwarder should also work. The PROTOCOL.TXT file referenced above provides the info needed for the header.
{"txpk":{"codr":"4/5","data":"oFxUlwEQRAAB8UObZx4=","datr":"SF8BW125",,"freq":921.9,"ipol":false,"modu":"LORA","ncrc":true,"powe":20,"rfch":0,"size":14,"imme":true}}

Try to install the usb gateway utils.

opkg update
opkg install lora-gateway-usb-utils

This will create directory /opt/lora

If opkg cannot connect to feed you can update the url in the following file
Check /etc/opkgd/mlinux-feed.conf

To find the mlinux version
cat /etc/issue

A list of feed paths are available here
http://multitech.net/mlinux/feeds/

[Jason Reiss]

You have found the correct setting in “ipol” of the packet forwarder protocol.
https://github.com/Lora-net/packet_forwarder/blob/master/PROTOCOL.TXT

Using this utility a packet can be received by another gateway running the packet forwarder. The utility sends packets with ipol set to false with an option (-i) to enable inverted polarity.
admin@mtcdt:/opt/lora/gateway-utils# ./util_tx_test -f 902.3 -r 1257 -b125 -s 12 -c 1 8 -z 24 -k 0 -p27

Other than the ipol setting, the frequency, spreading factory and bandwidth must be set correctly to a channel the conduit is listening for.
There are 8 – 125 kHz channels, one 250 or 500 kHz channel and one FSK channel.

[Jason Reiss]

With AEP our device management portal devicehq.com is available for remote upgrades and config updates.

[Jason Reiss]

See AEP 1.4.16 upgrade guide pages 28-29

Getting Started with LoRa Conduit AEP (LoRa Configuration)

[Jason Reiss]

No there is not support to synchronize or use two network servers effectively. Using both could be problematic if they both author downlinks. Or if only one sends a downlink then the frame counters would be out of sync and the end-device will reject packets with previous counters.

I am not understanding what need there is for TTN if the Conduit network server is being used. TTN is used to decrypt the data for your back-end which could be done on Conduit.

I suggest using only one network server.

[Jason Reiss]

The ttn mp_pkt_fwd can be configured to report to multiple network servers.
https://github.com/kersing/packet_forwarder

I am not sure how the downlinks will be handled if both network servers are connected. An uplink requesting ACK would be responded by both network servers. Both network servers could attempt to send MAC commands for ADR.

Using a custom application, written in node-red, python, etc., the packets received at the Conduit could be forwarded to a remote back-end after being decrypted locally. This could be your back-end and TTN would not be needed.

The application can also detect loss of connectivity and store packets locally until connection is restored.

[Jason Reiss]

The end-device will join to a single network server. This means the frame counters and session keys used for integrity checks and encryption/decryption will be known to only one network server.

[Jason Reiss]

GCC Version 6 should be used
https://os.mbed.com/docs/v5.8/tools/index.html

I use the 2017 q2 release without problem.
gcc-arm-none-eabi-6-2017-q2

[Jason Reiss]

LoRa Network Server

device update ulc

[Jason Reiss]

These examples will setup to connect to Semtech cloud.

Conduit mLinux: Convert to Basic Packet Forwarder

Conduit AEP: Convert to Basic Packet Forwarder

[Jason Reiss]

Do a factory reset and save.
Then reconfigure your network settings.

AT&F
AT&W

[Jason Reiss]

It is better to have the whitelist enabled with an empty array.
A disabled whitelist will enable http requests to a remote join server.

[Jason Reiss]

Header should use Content-Type
A hyphen was missing. I edited the original post.

[Jason Reiss]

What network server are you expecting to connect to in packet forwarder mode?

The packet forwarder needs to be configured to point to a network server somewhere. There is not a public network provided by default.

Then your end-device would need to be provisioned with that network server.

[Jason Reiss]

Here is our getting started video.

Getting Started with LoRa Conduit AEP (LoRa Configuration)

Also see Troubleshooting and Upgrade Guides at the bottom of page.

[Author]

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